Disney Channel is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

specialty channel owned by

Corus Entertainment Corus Entertainment Inc. is a Canadian mass media company. Formed in 1999 as a spin-off from Shaw Communications, it has prominent holdings in the radio, publishing, and television industries. It is headquartered at Corus Quay in Toronto, Onta ...

under license from

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Disney Stud ...

, which began broadcasting on September 1, 2015. It is a localized version of the U.S. basic cable network of the same name, broadcasting live-action and animated programming aimed at children between the ages of 9 to 16. The channel launched as part of a new licensing agreement between Corus Entertainment and the Disney–ABC Television Group (now known as

Walt Disney Television Disney General Entertainment Content, doing business as Walt Disney Television, is an American entertainment company that oversees television content and assets owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company. Forming the company's General Enter ...

), which succeeded a previous program supply agreement between Disney and Family Channel (owned by

WildBrain WildBrain Ltd. (formerly known as DHX Media, Ltd.) is a Canadian media, animation studio, production, and brand licensing company, mostly associated as an entertainment company. The company is known for owning the largest library of childr ...

). Its launch marked the first time that a Disney Channel-branded television service has operated in Canada.

History

Background (1988–2015)

At the time of its launch in 1988, Family Channel, owned by DHX Media, held Canadian rights to Disney Channel's programming library. As such, it operated licensed Canadian versions of Disney Channel's spinoff brands,

Disney XD Disney XD is an American pay television channel owned by the Disney Branded Television and Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution units of The Walt Disney Company. The channel is aimed primarily at older children ages six to eleven yea ...

and

Disney Junior Disney Junior is an American pay television network owned by the Walt Disney Television (part of Disney General Entertainment Content) unit of The Walt Disney Company through Disney Branded Television. Aimed mainly at children two to seven y ...

as sister networks.

Launch and development (2015–2017)

On April 16, 2015,

announced that it had reached a "landmark" agreement with the

Disney–ABC Television Group Disney General Entertainment Content, doing business as Walt Disney Television, is an American entertainment company that oversees television content and assets owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company. Forming the company's General Enterta ...

to acquire long-term, Canadian multi-platform rights to Disney Channel's programming library; the cost and duration of the licensing deal were not disclosed. Corus also announced that it would launch a Canadian version of Disney Channel on September 1, 2015; the service consists of a linear television channel, along with

TV Everywhere TV Everywhere (also known as authenticated streaming or authenticated video on-demand) refers to a type of subscription business model wherein access to streaming video content from a television channel requires users to "authenticate" themse ...

apps (Watch Disney Channel Canada), and

video-on-demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...

services for television platforms. This marks Corus' second Disney/ABC-licensed service behind

ABC Spark ABC Spark is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by Corus Entertainment. The channel was launched on March 26, 2012, replacing the declining channel Dusk. ABC Spark is based on the U.S. subscription channel Freeform (previously ...

– a localized version of ABC Family. At launch, Corus stated that Disney Channel was available in 10 million households, with carriage across most major Canadian cable providers,

IPTV Internet Protocol television (IPTV) is the delivery of television content over Internet Protocol (IP) networks. This is in contrast to delivery through traditional terrestrial, satellite, and cable television formats. Unlike downloaded med ...

providers Bell Fibe TV, Telus Optik TV,

SaskTel Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corporation, operating as SaskTel, is a Canadian crown-owned telecommunications firm based in the province of Saskatchewan. Owned by the provincial government, it provides wireline and wireless communicat ...

VMedia VMedia Inc. is a Canadian telecommunications company and broadcast distribution provider. It offers VoIP telephone and home security services across Canada; DSL and cable Internet in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Br ...

, and

Execulink Telecom Execulink Telecom Inc. is a Canadian telecommunications company headquartered in Woodstock, Ontario Woodstock is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The city has a population of 40,902 according to the 2016 Canadian census. Woodstock is the ...

, and national satellite providers

Bell Satellite TV Bell Satellite TV (french: Bell Télé; formerly known as Bell ExpressVu, Dish Network Canada and ExpressVu Dish Network and not to be confused with Bell's IPTV Fibe TV service) is the division of BCE Inc. that provides satellite television ser ...

and

Shaw Direct Shaw Direct is a direct broadcast satellite television distributor in Canada and a subsidiary of the telecommunications company Shaw Communications. As of 2010, Shaw Direct had over 900,000 subscribers. It broadcasts on Ku band from two commu ...

. Corus stated that it would transition "select Disney branded kids linear television offerings" to new properties under its ownership in the future; and brand new Corus-operated

and

services launched on December 1, 2015. In the meantime, Disney Channel aired blocks featuring selected Disney Junior and XD programs. Until the Disney XD and Junior blocks were finished on this channel, and for the 2015–16 television season, DHX consequently re-branded its Disney XD and Junior networks as

CHRGD WildBrainTV is a Canadian English language specialty channel owned by WildBrain. WildBrainTV broadcasts live-action and animated children's programming aimed towards audiences ages 6–15. The channel first launched on June 1, 2011, under the ow ...

(later WildBrainTV) and

Family Jr. Family Jr. is a multiplex channel of the Canadian specialty channel Family Channel. It broadcasts children's programming aimed at viewers aged 2 to 7. The channel launched on November 30, 2007 as a Canadian version of Playhouse Disney, under ...

respectively, and began phasing out Disney programming from the two channels and Family; DHX Media's licensing agreement with Disney formally ended at the beginning of January 2016.

Present day

Disney Channel originally operated as an "exempted"

Category B service A Category B service is the former term for a Canadian discretionary specialty television channel which, as defined by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, may be carried by all subscription television providers. Such ...

: under new policies implemented in 2012, channels with less than 200,000 subscribers that would otherwise meet the definition of a Category B service are exempted from licensing by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. On September 1, 2017, the channel became a regularly licensed discretionary service.

Programming

Disney Channel primarily airs animated and live-action series from its U.S. counterpart, movies, and third-party content from other distributors. It also airs programming from sister channels

and

, interstitial programs such as Movie Surfers, a look at the latest movies from

, and special previews of new shows.

Programming blocks

Current

(branded as Mickey Mornings on-air) – a weekday morning programming block featuring programming from

. The block was originally discontinued after December 18, 2015, due to the launch of the new Corus-operated

channel. However, the 2-day special preview of the new Disney Junior show, ''

Mickey and the Roadster Racers ''Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures'' is an American CGI-animated preschool television series that was broadcast on Disney Junior. Produced by Disney Television Animation, the series is the successor to ''Mickey Mouse Clubhouse''. Originally ...

'', premiered on January 21, 2017, at 9:00 a.m. EST across all English-language Disney channels in Canada as a simulcast and aired the preview on Disney Channel and

until January 22, 2017. The block returned in April 2018.

Former

on Disney Channel – a late Friday night/early Saturday morning (formerly weekend afternoon, then Thursday night) programming block featuring programs from Disney XD that are targeted at children's ages 6 to 15. The block was put on hiatus after November 29, 2015, due to the launch of the new Corus-operated Disney XD channel. The Disney XD on Disney Channel block also airs occasionally on weekends to show special episodes such as the Lab Rats: Elite Force premiere episode. The block returned on November 3, 2016, after an 11-month hiatus and began airing on Thursday evenings from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. EST/PST. The block was put on hiatus again after May 25, 2017, but then returned on September 2, 2017, with '' Spider-Man'', '' Milo Murphy's Law: Missing Milo'', and '' Walk the Prank''. * Famalama DingDong – a four-day block with former sister channels YTV and

Teletoon Teletoon (stylized as TELETOON) is a Canadian English-language specialty channel owned by Teletoon Canada, Inc., a subsidiary of Corus Entertainment. Its name is a portmanteau of "television" and "cartoon". The channel primarily broadcasts an ...

(still owned by Corus). It showed the world premiere of Disney Channel's newest show '' Stuck in the Middle'' along with movies like '' Invisible Sister'' and new episodes of ''

Girl Meets World ''Girl Meets World'' is an American comedy television series created by Michael Jacobs and April Kelly that premiered on Disney Channel on June 27, 2014. The series ran for three seasons, consisting of 72 episodes, and concluded on January 20 ...

'' on February 12, 2016. It was the last channel to air on February 15, 2016, after YTV and Teletoon. It returned as a YTV-exclusive since 2019.

References

External links

*
Disney Channel Canada Schedule
{{Disney Channel Children's television networks in Canada Corus Entertainment networks Television channels and stations established in 2015 Digital cable television networks in Canada

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

English-language television stations in Canada 2015 establishments in Canada